A huge mushroom cloud of dust is expected to rise over Nevada's desert in June when the Pentagon plans to detonate a gigantic, 700-ton explosive -- the biggest open-air chemical blast ever at the Nevada Test Site -- as part of the research into developing weapons that can destroy deeply buried military targets, officials said yesterday.

The test, code-named "Divine Strake," will occur on June 2 about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas in a high desert valley bounded by mountains, according to Pentagon and Energy Department officials.

"This is the largest single explosive we could imagine doing," said James A. Tegnelia, director of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which is conducting the test.

The test is aimed at determining how well a massive conventional bomb would perform against fortified underground targets -- such as military headquarters, biological or chemical weapons stockpiles, and long-range missiles -- that the Pentagon says are proliferating among potential adversaries around the world.

Tegnelia said there are a range of technical hurdles to overcome. He suggested that big conventional bombs are unlikely to solve the overall problem of buried threats. "It's a lot easier to dig your tunnel 50 feet deeper" than to develop weapons that can destroy it, he told a meeting of defense reporters.

Such a bomb would be a conventional alternative to a nuclear weapon proposed by the Bush administration, which has run into opposition on Capitol Hill. The Pentagon for several years has sought funding for research into the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) -- also known as the "bunker buster" -- after the administration's 2001 Nuclear Posture Review stated that no weapon in the U.S. arsenal could threaten a growing number of buried targets. Congress, however, has repeatedly refused to grant funding for a study on a nuclear bunker buster, instead directing money toward conventional alternatives.

61265...it's explain on another post here. The 700 tonne does not refer to the wieght of the bomb but the force of the blast.<<The ton of TNT or tonne of trinitrotoluene is a unit of energy using the tonne as a proxy term. This unit is not acceptable for use with SI. Assuming that TNT contains 1000 small (thermochemical) calories per gram (4.184 kJ/g), one tonne TNT is more correctly referred to as 4.184 gigajoules.>>

One should check out the test shot in 1945 of tons of tnt before they tested the Trinity A=Bomb.

I will see if I can find a link.

But the essence of it is 700 tons of TNT not as one individual bomb, but as 700 tons worth of boxes of TNT like they did before the Trintiy blast. To study and calibrate the fireball and other effects.

Maximum sized of bombs used in WWII contained 25,000 pounds of high explosive. or 12.5 tons. These were not using TNT.. can't remember what I read they used.

So 700 tons would indeed be the biggest at least since Trinity (gotta find out how big that one was) TNT blast.

The part about the mushroom cloud is certainly true. Some of the A-bomb tests in the NTS were as snall as 1,000 tons of TNT by equivalence.

they dropped that sh*t in afghanistan,,, it did nothing to bunkers, caves,, it is not a penetrator,,, that is why they will go to tactical nukes

it seems to me,, you could design something,,, that you could drop,,, and have it dig itself into the ground, before going off? ah well,,, i am sure they will figure out a way to keep the killing going